Are you looking to enhance the readability of your website text and make it more visually appealing? Consider utilizing CSS hyphenation support. Currently, CSS hyphenation support is excellent, with just a -webkit- prefix remaining for Safari. By applying hyphenation on a parent element and allowing it to cascade, you’ll notice text aligning more closely with the ragged edges, providing a consistent look. While optional, it can be a great aesthetic choice for your content.
The rise of Hyphenopoly.js, a hyphenation polyfill in JavaScript, has garnered attention recently. While native browser support for hyphenation is robust, this polyfill offers compatibility with Node, opening up possibilities for languages lacking native hyphenation support. With features extending to languages with hyphenation gaps, Hyphenopoly.js is a valuable tool for web developers.
Update from Mathias Nater:
Hyphenopoly.js was first introduced in 2018, preceding the availability of hyphens:auto;. Many languages still lack comprehensive native support across browsers.
Supporting 72 languages and being extensible, Hyphenopoly.js requires hyphenation patterns, akin to those TeX uses, or an extensive list of pre-hyphenated words for pattern generation.
The CSS realm extends beyond hyphenation control. Delve into a deeper understanding of text wrapping and word breaking with Will Boyd’s insightful article, Deep Dive into Text Wrapping and Word Breaking.
Shifting focus to typography, the emergence of Stabby adds a unique touch to font aesthetics:
With font rendering being a crucial element of web design, the conundrum of shifting content due to custom font loading is a common issue. The advent of CSS’s font-display: swap; has revolutionized font rendering, minimizing layout shifts while ensuring prompt content delivery.
Explore the nuances of font fallbacks in Katie Hempenius’ recent article on Improved font fallbacks:
This article delves into font fallbacks and the
size-adjust,ascent-override,descent-override, andline-gap-overrideAPIs. These APIs facilitate precise fallback font creation to minimize layout shifts during font transitions.
Optimize font rendering with customized metrics for your custom font, implementing measurements to prevent layout shifts effectively.
body {
font-family: Poppins, "fallback for poppins";
}
@font-face {
font-family: "fallback for poppins";
src: local("Times New Roman");
ascent-override: 105%;
descent-override: 35%;
line-gap-override: 10%;
}Discover the ease of implementing font metric overrides for seamless font integration, irrespective of the fallback font chosen.
Font metric overrides are calculated based on web font metadata rather than the fallback font, ensuring consistency across font selections.
Transitioning back to typography innovations, explore Adam Argyle’s captivating Text Replace Transitions, offering a unique perspective on text animations:
Experiment with animating text using the new View Transitions API, as showcased in Adam Argyle’s demo In Chrome Canary. Embrace the simplicity of the API and leverage CSS properties for seamless animation control between page transitions.